PERFECT PAWS

I’d like to share my little ditty
About the claws upon this kitty.
How they’re anchored in my toes
And real important, like my nose.
I use them many times each day
From where they’re neatly tucked away.
I need my claws to keep me fit,
To walk and groom and play a bit.
To climb and balance up above,
To hold a finger and show my love.
Ten at the front and eight at the back,
They are sometimes needed to attack.
Self defence is their role you see
When something hurts or threatens me.
Countries where vets take cats claws
Must have no pet welfare laws.

I really enjoyed this page – sadly after the fact. I try to spend my whole weekend away from the computer and with the cats, especially Gigi. This is helped by the fact my keyboard at home is awful so I couldn’t type a long comment anyway. It’s working, Gigi seems to be getting a little better.

It’s more important to spend time with Gigi, I’m so glad she’s a bit better.
I’m so lucky to be retired and have time to spend on PoC as well as lots of quality time with our boyz. It was very difficult in the past when I was at work long hours so I do sympathise with you.

Sometimes he won’t allow us to be in a different room. He meows to call us into the back room with him. He wants to be up there but he doesn’t want to be alone. Yesterday he was racing around up there, he actually startled me while I was entering grades in the computer. I kind of forgot he was up there. All the hardware seems to be holding up well, and I like that Jeff added an extra safety cable under all the bridges just in case. He really races around up there sometimes!

I was worried about that the other day– he had that gleam in his eye as I passed under him. But so far he hasn’t pounced on anyone’s head. He did jump from his bridge onto the top of the computer desk, explored a bit there, and jumped back up to his bridge.

Thanks Dee 🙂 – Sadly I work until 6 or 630 usually and I go to bed early so I haven’t much time with them. I wish I finished at 5 on the dot because that extra hour and a half would really help. As it is I don’t get home til 7 and I am in bed at around 9 or 930.

….and that’s why I feel I must really spend the whole weekend with Gigi these days – because during the week there’s no way near enough time to work with her issues. I’m trying my best 🙂 I look forward to getting home in a few hours to play with them.

What wonderful poems, I am of course very proud of Jozef and Walter’s efforts and that they care about other cats claws as well as their own and to read everyone else’s poems too is lovely because they are all so good.
PoC Poetry Corner has been born 🙂

Feed me now,
Meow, meow!
I mean RIGHT NOW,
Again meow,
Meow, MEOW!
No food for me,
Well, we shall see:
Staring, staring right at you,
I’m telling you just what to do:
Say the word I want to hear,
The one that means a meal is near,
Say, “Treat!”
Get on your feet!
You lazy human,
Don’t you see,
What your reluctance does to me?
I’m so weak and hungry,
Just a starving baby kitty…
Don’t you hear my faint meow,
Barely like a whisper now?
Just say, “Treat”
Then we can eat!
I’m sure that you are hungry too
For just a little bite or two…
Let’s eat!
Say, “Treat!”
Right now!
Meow!

He eats all of whatever is put out for him, even if it’s too much. I have to be very careful with portion sizes. He will beg like he’s starving when he’s full and eat only to barf it up because there’s no room in his belly. I think it all stems from that once, not so long ago, he was a starving baby kitten, and he’s never forgotten that.

I think it’s quite unusual for a cat to eat to excess isn’t it. Monty is funny I had to laugh at the thought of him stuffing himself then bringing it back up, I’m a bit greedy that way myself but I don’t bring it back, I hang on to it and grow bigger LOL, but it’s true that what they learn as kittens stays with them all through their lives even when they should know that they are safe and well fed they just don’t seem to be able to forget, we think that’s why Walter is the way he is, a bit of a bully and very over-anxious, he can’t stand change and hates it when anyone comes, if he’s upstairs and hears a strange voice he hides behind my bedhead, but he did have an awful start, like your Monty. Jozef still tries to cover up food, his own leavings and Walter’s as well, he’ll use anything to hand, sometimes he even tries to manhandle the cat scratch sofa across to cover food so we leave a bit of kitchen roll handy for him. I wish we could explain to them that they never need to worry anymore.

Thank you Uncle Michael, I did my best but really I’m more of a practical cat than a writer, I took time out from watching my neighbourhood though because cats claws are so very important. Love Walter again x

Really good, Dee! You have a gift for writing rhyming poetry. My grandpa had it and my sister and I can write rhyming poetry too. It skipped a generation, so when my Aunt Dianne needed to write a poem for a school assignment her father wrote it for her. He wrote such a good poem for her that Pastor quoted it in his sermon on Sunday, attributing it to Dianne. The whole family sat there waiting for lightning to strike their church pew!

Walter said he wanted to write a poem this morning, but like Charlie he needed his brekkie first, so after a bit of Felix, some Vitacat, a tad of Bob Martins gravy and some Hilife tuna he got down to it. He, Jozef and the kitchen bin have all had good breakfasts (Jo managed some chicken as well).

This one is profound, Michael. I find myself often thinking that if Monty had been declawed he wouldn’t be the same cat. He wouldn’t be happy. How could he be? Dealing with that loss of a part of himself would be all consuming. In some ways it would kill him to declaw him, and I don’t mean because it would take away his natural defenses.

Good, I am pleased. When a part of a cat or a person is removed it must change the cat or person psychologically. If something is added that too must have a psychological impact. This is excluding all the issues about function. It is just that we expect to be what we are meant to me.

It’s true though and Charlie is very clever to have thought of it from that angle, taking something away from the whole does change it, even subtly, it is never the same again. The same must apply to cats losing a vital part of themselves, like any amputee they must grieve for their lost parts.

Walter is very stressed out, he is trying to think of a poem so that his brother doesn’t put him to shame. meanwhile great poem Jozef, you’re a clever lad and you know how important those claws are to all cats everywhere.